Dasavatharam

"Kallai mattum kandaal kadavul theriyaadhu, Kadavul mattum kandaal kalladi theriyaadhu." With these words starts the movie Dasaavathaaram, which means "If you see stone, you cannot see God. If you see God, you cannot see the stone behind it." Kamal Haasan may have excelled in ten different roles in the movie, but his 11th role as a script writer, according to me dominates the film. His rationalist thinkings dominate the theme of the film. Does God exist? If He exists, then why such inequalities and turmoil in the world? God created Man, but Man created temples and idols, caste, creed, races, religion and differentiated within himself and this has resulted in the current agony facing mankind. So explains the scriptwriter in this film.

The movie starts excellently with the breathtaking story of Rangaraja Nambi, a devotee of Lord Vishnu who gives up his life for Lord Vishnu in the Shiviite - Vaishnaviite battle. Here Kamal asks questions as to why Rangaraja Nambi died? Was it due to the Lord or the man made differences between Shiviites and Vaishnaviites. The movie goes along these lines and explores all the differences - the caste differences portrayed by Dalit Kamal Vincent Poovaraghavan, the Muslim Hindu differences portrayed by Muslim Kamal Kalifulla Khan. The differences in the world leading to the emergence of the terrorists which gives rise to the 9/11 bombings and the quest by the US to develop biological weapons after that, which threatens mankind.

Here Kamal portrays himself as scientist as Govindaraj Ramaswamy. He playes as the US President Bush also, which looks a bit comical. Some evil men take advantage of these differences as portrayed by the character Christian Fletcher also acted brilliantly by Kamal and are out to destroy mankind. Scientist Govind takes it upon himself to destroy the biological weapon and is prevented by all the evil forces. A Sikh singer Avatar Singh, affected by cancer and is shown to get caught between Govind and Fletcher in which Fletcher shoots Avatar Singh accidentally and the same bullet helps Avatar Singh from cancer. The Sikh family of Avatar Singh thanks their God for the divine help. Here too the writer Kamal resurfaces to show how man made events playing a role in the life of man are attributed to God. The Muslims including Kamal Kalifulla Khan who are illegally detained in a mosque by an hilarious RAW officer Balarama Naidu are saved by the Tsunami in the climax of the film. So did Allah save them, Kamal questions. The upper castes drowned by the Tsunami are saved by the Dalits but the Dalit leader Vincent Poovaraghavan gets drowned himself. So did God not do justice to him? Kamal again asks.

The Tsunami finally saves the world from the biological weapons. Asin, the heroine of the film thanks the Lord for saving the world from this dalamity. At this point, the scientist Govindaraj Ramaswamy questions her "Did God really act as savior, when several thousands have also died by the very Tsunami." Though Kamal shows the Tsunami to be the savior in this film, he also symbolically questions the reason behind the Tsunami. The man made differences leading to quest for scientific inventions going against the forces of Nature gives rise to such global warming and Tsunamis. So man in a way is destroying mankind in the name of God, whether be it in the 12th century or the 21st century. This is the underlying message of the film conveyed beautifully through a fast paced plot where Govind Ramaswamy the scientist is chased down by the villain Fletcher right from US to India. Kamal Haasan also plays the role of Krishnaveni Patti, the grandmother and Shingen Narahashi, a martial expert.

The film moves at such a brisk pace that one forgets the many loopholes and enjoys the grandeur and spectacle of the movie. The cinematagrophy is world class and the background music brilliant. The Director of the movie Ravikumar has done a good job, but the success of the movie can be attributed to the script and screenplay of Kamal Haasan. It is difficult to encompass such a complex thought, the chaos theory into a movie to be enjoyed particularly by an Indian audience. Kamal Haasan's performance as Rangarajan Nambi,Christian Fletcher and Vincent Poovaraghan certainly deserves National and International Awards. His portrayal as Balarama Naidu and Kalifullah Khan are hilarious. I liked his portrayal as Dalit leader Vincent Poovaraghavan. Of course, the hero Govind the scientist, Kamal Haasan was first rate. Heroine Asin also displayed superb acting skills. Mallika Sherawat played her part. Music by Himesh Reshammiya was nothing had audio cassettes selling like hot cakes. As a Director, Kamal Haasan already proved with 'Hey Ram'. Dasavathaaram is another quality product from him as a script and screenplay writer, though it could have been a milestone. One can expect more from Kamal Haasan as a script writer and also as a Director in the future.

This movie shows efforts of Kamal trying real hard to take Tamil cinema to the next level without losing its commercial value. Clearly, this is not a kind of movie that Kamal makes. But, yes apart for a few shortcomings (to give commercial value) the film lives up to its expectations.

There are few times when you actually think whether some of the characters are necessary. But when you already have a baseline of Eddie Murphy donning 7 and Sivaji Ganesan donning 9 roles, I think you do not have a choice than appearing in 10 roles.

The story is quite predictable, but that is compensated by the Kamals appearance in each and every frame. I would have to say that the letdown is in the music department. Himesh should not have been the composer, instead AR Rehman would have been good.

Kamal's hard work and perseverance is evident throughout the movie and that works good for the movie.

KS Ravikumar has been roped in just to add the commercial elements to keep the investments safe and he does it quite good.

Not a regular Kamal film as its commercial like a Rajini movie, though reiterates the fact why he is called the "Best in Indian Cinema".

This multi-faceted effort will be remembered in Indian cinema a long way. Kudos.

I have read many user comments here and i don't know why they were disappointed by the film. This movie holds you up throughout the film. Wow awesome! Kamal excels donning ten roles with gr8 efforts differentiating each one through a different slang and body language. The movie is a racy thriller which has very right mixture of action and comedy and is splendid because of kamal's acting, makeups(one or two makeups are not very pleasing though),crazy's sensible and witty dialogues,special effects and all.I want to remind people that like any other film Dasavatharam is also a 'film' which is intend to satisfy all type of movie lovers. The plot may appear simple but the way it is portrayed in a thrilling way throughout without any flaws, introducing each role at appropriate time with most of them strongly connected to the main story(though i feel one or two characters not very needed to the film,we can give it up as they don't deviate you from the plot)is really superb.

Hello movie goers, don't even think to miss this movie. Go for the movie mainly for KamalHaasan who has taken really painful efforts and excelled in all ten lovable characters and i promise the movie will hold you up providing a 3 hour non stop entertainment in terms of action,special effects,comedy and a thrilling adventure no matter any genre lover you are..

an instance for chaos theory....the statuette hits ocean beds....beneath the bed develop faults....faults run for kilometers say upto indonesia ....and pressure builds up....for almost 800 years.....at last it unleashes....triggers tsunami....to save lives???? the above 3 lines is my opinion of the plot of dasaavatharam....yours may be different....if this is not art then what is???? the creative genius of kamal haasan has been unleashed to an audience who have witnessed thousand odd duets,thousand odd cheap fights and few good movies as well.music was good and the make up was not upto the standard that kamals earlier films had set.perhaps he felt the pressure of the time this project took.ravi varman deserves mention.asin was irritating at times and of the ten three to four roles was not enjoyed.and like this the film may contain many flaws if not less but kamal stands as tall as kalifulla khan does before these flaws.dasaavatharam may or may not be a commercial success but it is time for the world to stand up and congratulate this artist.

I do not term myself as an ardent Kamal fan but I do not hesitate to recognize the trend-breakers in todays Tamil cinema. Dasavatharam has many positives that overshadow the small set backs. Tremendous effort from Kamal in terms of 10 different character which he not only differentiated with some amazing makeup but with individual slangs and body language. Graphics and art direction that have taken the Tamil film industry to another level. One should admit that some of the avathars do not align with the flow of the story and rather slackens the flow. At these junctures,Crazy Mohan has come to the rescue. He is amazing. Still as mentioned in the beginning, these minor glitches do not grossly undermine the humongous efforts of the Producer, Director, Cast, and the cinematographer. While the background score was mostly supportive to the main plot, songs were less appealing considering the grandeur of the project. We seldom get to see such valiant projects as Dasavatharam. Rather than dissecting this movie under a microscope, let us join hands, go to the theater and appreciate this unique effort to steer the Tamil/Indian cinema to a new direction/level.